* do these parents read to their young children?* do
these parents ever sit in the classroom with their children, and see what's
going on?* do giving standardized tests help these students learn more?

Most parents have no idea of what their children do in the classroom.
As a retired teacher, I scheduled parents to be a part of my classroom. Some
came everyday for the school year, and became a volunteer assistant. This worked
wonders with behavior, and effort of the students.

Rather then
complain, help with the effort.

Fred44Salt Lake City, Utah

Feb. 4, 2013 7:54 p.m.

I always chuckle when people come on here and blame the unions, and claim that
charters can provide a marvelous new and better program, without even looking at
the most fundamental reasons for the problem. Did anyone happen to catch the
most important statistic? "Just 37 percent of students attend school 96
percent of the time". It really doesn't matter if it is a union
teacher a non-union teacher, a charter school teacher a male teacher a female
teacher etc., etc., if kids don't come to class, it is pretty hard to teach
them.

If you look at all the lowest performing schools nearly all
of them have students who don't come to school. Attendance and as JWB
pointed out parental commitment are probably the two most important components
to a quality education.

Howard BealProvo, UT

Feb. 4, 2013 5:34 p.m.

I think once again the latest school shooting showed that teachers will do
anything they can for their students, even lay down their lives. If they are
willing to do that, they are probably coming to work prepared to teach and they
love and care about their students deeply. We need to get off their backs. We
need to give them a decent wage, restoring benefits and supporting in other
ways.

Not all, but the majority of what ails education comes from
politicians and parents not supporting education. Parents are the primary
educator of the child, good or bad.

UGradBYUfanSnowflake, AZ

Feb. 4, 2013 12:24 p.m.

What the commentors thus far seem to be missing is, that even though they are
tracking the results of the "school turnaround", the change hasn't
proven to have made any appreciable improvement! The only data that they have
seen any real improvement, was that attendance improved after the first year,
and then it went back to the same poor attendance pattern the next year. Wow!
Great change! And what have the student's AND the teacher's and
community have to endure? Are they pouring money into this? Sure they are! $3.5
billion in grants. Why didn't they just put some of that money into
improving student achievement by looking at implementing research-proven
programs that improve student learning?

No, we hate the
teacher's and union so much, we just need to tear it and them apart. Think
about it!

TatorsHyrum, UT

Feb. 4, 2013 11:12 a.m.

It just so happens that these lowest performing schools in the nations, shown to
be so by objective testing numbers, have students that are primarily minority
students. For these so called "community organizers" to then call the
efforts to help these schools and students as being racist is asinine and
absurd. The fact that only 3% of their students are proficient at math,
approximately 2/3's of their students can't read acceptably, and only
about half ever graduate from high school is evidence enough that since other
reform efforts through the years have not worked, more drastic action is now
required. School unions are the ones complaining the loudest about the
worst performing teachers involved, who happen to be union members, getting
fired and replaced. But without culling out worst teachers, very little is ever
going to change... no matter how much money is thrown at the problem. Getting
better teachers needs to be part of the fundamental changes required, regardless
of the complainers. It's interesting that some people are always so
resistant to change, no matter how much good can potentially be done from those
changes.

JWBKaysville, UT

Feb. 4, 2013 10:16 a.m.

It is hard to believe that people who wanted Obama would be against the Unions
who brought him into power both elections. The UEA doesn't have the same
kind of power as a union and has not been acting the same as the real unions in
Washington, D.C. and other places. Teachers in Utah have given plenty of time,
energy, and talents for their students and the move toward performance has been
occurring for years. Davis County public schools are a great place to get
educated and the peers of every school and parents have a part in the process.
Teachers and administrators are doing a very good job and parents can make a big
difference with input with their children, every day and not just at
parent-teacher conferences.

Parents need to do their part, even
though it is extremely difficult for those that are single parents and those
spouses of military personnel who may be deployed for 100s of days or even years
at a time. Davis County has a very large part of the military community for
many decades and will be for the future.

Thanks for keeping us safe
from the world of demise.

Obama10SYRACUSE, UT

Feb. 4, 2013 9:49 a.m.

So the same people who complain the school is underperforming are the same
people against change. The real issue is the teachers union does not want the
teachers in these schools to be fired due to low performance. I have had my
children in a charter school in Layton for years and love it. After the first
year the school was opened, the Principal was fired because she was not up to
standards and went back to public schools. Get rid of the union and you will
see an increase in education.